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Amazing Maya inventions you can build yourself PDF

129 Pages·2006·34.7 MB·english
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LEarn SOmE HandS-On HiStOry AAmmAAzziinngg M AY A inventions yOu Can BuiLd yOurSELf SHEri BELL-rEHwOLdt AmAzIng InventIons You Can Build Yourself sheri Bell-rehwoldt To my twin sister, Jeri, the “craftiest” person I know. Nomad Press A division of Nomad Communications 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Copyright © 2006 by Nomad Press All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Th e trademark “Nomad Press” and the Nomad Press logo are trademarks of Nomad Communications, Inc. Printed in the United States. ISBN: 0-9771294-6-2 Questions regarding the ordering of this book should be addressed to Independent Publishers Group 814 N. Franklin St. Chicago, IL 60610 www.ipgbook.com Nomad Press 2456 Christian St. White River Junction, VT 05001 www.nomadpress.net AmAzIng Pok-A-Tok . . . 57 Numbers . . . 62 InventIons Calendars . . . 67 Majestic Builders . . . 75 You Can Build Yourself Hieroglyphs . . . 87 Introduction . . . 1 The Maya Codices . . . 93 Uncovering an Artistic Flair . . . 100 Ancient Legacy . . . 3 Jewelry . . . 105 Kings . . . 13 Pottery . . . 109 Priests & Healers . . . 20 Glossary . . . 112 Merchants . . . 26 Resources . . . 115 Farming & Food . . . 30 Index . . . 116 Women & Weaving . . . 37 Maya Children . . . 43 TABLE Gods & Sacrifices . . . 48 oF CoNTENTS TIMELInE MAYA oF THE oF THE The ancient Maya civilization lasted about 3,000 years. Their history is divided into three main time periods: the pre-classic period, the classic period, and the post-classic period. Descendants of the Maya still live in Central America. 3114 BCE: Th e creation of the 400 BCE: Th e earliest known Teotihuacán, which becomes world, according to the Maya solar calendars are carved in very dominant. Other cities Long Count calendar. stone. merge together into larger cities called city-states. Th ese 2600 BCE: Th e fi rst Maya 300 BCE: Th e Maya adopt the city-states fi ght over land, settlements appear on the idea of a hierarchical slaves, and victims for human Pacifi c and Caribbean coasts society, which is a society sacrifi ces. of what is now Mexico, with upper and lower classes Guatemala, and Belize. ruled by nobles and kings. 500 CE: Teotihuacán is in trouble and many of its citi- 2000 BCE: Th e rise of the 100 BCE: Th e city of zens fl ee to Tikal, which be- Olmec civilization, which Teotihuacán is founded and comes the fi rst great Maya city. infl uences the Maya in math, becomes a religious and architecture, and astronomy. cultural trading center. 600 CE: A mysterious event destroys Teotihuacán. Tikal 2000 BCE–250 CE pre-classic becomes the largest city in Mesoamerica. period 683 CE: At age 80, the great- est Maya king, Pacal dies. Cities based on farming spread He is buried in the Temple of across Mesoamerica, into the Teotihuacán Inscriptions at Palenque. lowland rainforests (what is now Mexico, Guatemala, 100 CE: For unknown and Belize) and the highland reasons, the Olmec civilization mountains (what is now Gua- begins to decline. temala and Honduras). 250 CE–900 CE classic 700 BCE: Th e Mayan written Temple of Inscriptions period language is developed. 751 CE: Trade between Maya Known as the Maya’s “golden city-states declines and confl ict increases. age.” Maya kings rule great cities. 869 CE: In Tikal, construction stops and the city begins to 400 CE: Cities in the Maya decline. highlands are taken over by 899 CE: Tikal is abandoned. 900 CE–1600 CE 1502 CE: Christopher Colum- post-classic bus learns of the Maya when period he captures a Maya trading canoe near the Gulf of Hondu- ras. Word soon spreads across Th e classic period ends as the Maya fl ee their southern Spain about the riches of Me- Tikal soamerica. Conquistadors set lowland city-states. Possible out to claim the resources of 1697 CE: Th e last ancient reasons: drought, too many the land and people, especially Maya city, Tayasal, set deep people, too little food, war, their gold, for Spain. inside the rainforests of what and disease. Maya cities in the is now Guatemala, falls to con- northern Yucatán continue to 1517 CE: Th e Spanish arrive quistador Martin de Ursua. thrive. From as many as on the shores of the Yucatán. 13 million people at its height 1843 CE: John Lloyd Ste- 1519 CE: Hernán Cortés in 750 CE, by 950 CE more phens and Frederick Cather- begins ex- than 90 percent of the Maya wood explore Central America ploring the population have died. looking for Maya ruins. Th ey Yucatán publish a book of their travels, 1200 CE: Northern Maya cit- and the igniting world interest in the ies begin to be abandoned. Spanish ancient Maya. begin their 1224 CE: Th e city of Chichén conquest 1886 CE: Mayan hieroglyphs Itzá is abandoned, and its Cortés of Mexico. begin to be catalogued. people settle outside the city. 1541 CE: Th e Spanish con- 1952 CE: Pacal’s tomb is quer the Maya and establish discovered at Palenque. a capital city at Mérida in the 1973 CE: Scholars make northern Yucatán. breakthroughs in understand- Chichén Itzá 1562 CE: Diego de Landa, a ing the Mayan written lan- 1263 CE: Th e people of Spanish bishop, begins to bru- guage. Previously only some Chichén Itzá begin building tally force the Maya to accept of the hieroglyphs describing the city of Mayapán, which Catholicism. He tortures and numbers, astronomy, and the becomes the capital of Yucatán. kills and orders the burning of Maya calendar were inter- all Maya books. preted. Today, 90 percent of 1441 CE: Th e people of the glyph meanings are under- Mayapán start to leave and it 1695 CE: Th e ruins of Tikal stood. is abandoned by 1461. After are discovered by a Spanish this, warring groups compete priest, who had become lost in 1992 CE: A Maya woman wins to rule over the others. the jungle. the Nobel Peace Prize for fi ght- ing for human rights for the Maya. nAMES Know To Pacal II, also known many other cities under his Charles V, King of Spain as Pacal the Great, or control. Shield Jaguar died in (1500–1558) Approved the K’inich Janahb’ Pakal 742 CE at the age of 92. Spanish conquest of the Amer- Ruler of the great Maya city- icas, after taking the throne in state of Palenque for 68 years, 1516. Charles gave the throne Lady Xok of Yaxchilán from 615 to 683. Th e name to his son, Philip II, when he Th e most prominent wife of Pacal translates to “shield.” Pa- decided to enter a monastery. Shield Jaguar the Great, Lady cal II may be the most famous He died 2 years later. Xok is shown in many Yax- Maya king. He took the throne chilán stone carvings. In one at age 12 and died at 80. Dur- ing his reign he built Palenque well-known doorway panel, Diego de Landa into an important Maya city. she is shown pulling a thorn- (1524–1579) A Spanish priest He is buried in a tomb deep studded rope through her who tried to convert the Maya within the Temple of Inscrip- tongue for a blood sacrifi ce as to Christianity. He did so in tions, a huge memorial pyra- Shield Jaguar holds a torch a brutal way. He ordered the mid. After his death he was over her head. Lady Xoc died burning of the Maya codices, worshipped as a god. in 749 CE. the torture of Maya people, and the demolition of Maya buildings. Waxaklajuun Ub’aah Kan Bahlam II, Snake K’awiil, also known as Jaquar Th e son of Pacal II, 18 Rabbit He was the 13th John Lloyd Stephens he inherited the throne at the ruler of Copán and one of the (1805–1852) age of 48. He continued to add to Palenque’s architecture, city’s most famous kings. Frederick Catherwood including three small pyramid He ruled from about 695 to (1799–1854) Stevens was an temples: the Temple of the 738 CE, when he was captured American travel writer and Sun, the Temple of the Cross, and sacrifi ced by a king called Catherwood was a British art- and the Temple of the Foliated Cauac Sky. ist. Th ey teamed up to locate Cross. Th ey were designed to Maya ruins. During their two echo the shapes of distant expeditions to Mesoamerica, Hernán Cortés mountains. they visited 44 ancient cit- (1484–1547) Th e conquista- ies before returning home dor who left Spain in 1519 to in 1842 to write Incidents of capture Mesoamerican gold Shield Jaguar the Great Travel in Central America. Th e for Spain. Since the Maya King of Yaxchilán, a rival city book generated much interest had no gold, except for small of Palenque, from 681 to among archaeologists, schol- amounts they had acquired 742 CE. Th e powerful family ars, and the general public. through trade, he and the of his most important wife, Spaniards focused more on the Lady Xok, helped to keep him Aztec, neighbors of the Maya. on the throne for 50 years. A powerful warrior, he brought PLACES Know To Yucatán Peninsula: Th e pen- Its greatest power came during Mayapán: A pre-Columbian insula in Mexico that was once the long reign of King Shield Maya city that was the politi- the heart of Maya civilization. Jaguar II, who died in his nine- cal capital of the Maya in the Th ere are many Maya archaeo- ties in 742 CE. Today, Yaxchilán Yucatán Peninsula from about logical sites throughout the is known for its large quantity the late 1220s to the 1440s. peninsula and many Maya of excellent sculptures. Today the site of Mayapán is descendents still live there. not one of the most impres- sive Maya sites. Th is is partly Copán: A strong kingdom because architecture on the Teotihuacán: A city founded established in 159 CE. At scale of Chichén Itzá and other in 100 BCE that became a its height, it had an unusu- Maya cities was never attempt- religious and cultural trading ally wealthy citizenship. As a ed there. center. It was the largest city in result, the carvings and sculp- the Americas. Around 500 CE, tured decorations on the build- for unknown reasons, many of ings of Copán are some of the Tayasal: Located in the its citizens began to fl ee to Ti- fi nest in Mesoamerica. southern Maya lowlands, it kal. In 600 CE it was destroyed was the center of the last in- by a mysterious event. dependent Maya city-state to Uxmal: For generations Ux- be subdued by the Spanish, in mal was the most powerful city 1697. Unfortunately, most of Tikal: Th e fi rst great city of in western Yucatán, and for a the archaeological treasures of the Maya civilization. It be- while it was allied with Chi- this city were lost when it was came important between 500 chén Itzá and dominated all of destroyed and rebuilt by the and 600 CE, as Teotihuacán the northern Maya area. Not Spanish after its fall. weakened. Today it is the larg- long after 1200 CE, construc- est of the ancient ruined cities tion at Uxmal stopped, and the of the Maya civilization. city began its decline. Mérida: Th e modern capital city of the Yucatán state in Mexico. It is located in the Palenque: A great city ruled Chichén Itzá: Th is was a northwest part of the penin- by Pacal the Great. Palenque major city during the Maya sula in between the ruins of contains some of the fi nest ar- classic period, around 600 CE. Chichén Itzá and Uxmal. It was chitecture, sculpture, and carv- It reached its height after the founded in 1542 and was built ings the Maya ever produced. Maya sites of the central low- over the Maya city of T’ho. lands to the south had already Some carved Maya stones from collapsed. Revolt and civil war ancient T’ho are still visibly Yaxchilán: Th is was an impor- among the Maya in 1221 CE reused in Spanish colonial tant city throughout the classic led to the city’s decline and buildings, and some Maya still era. Yaxchilán waged war with authority over the Yucatán use the ancient name T’ho its rival, Palenque, in 654 CE. Peninsula shifted to Mayapán. when referring to Mérida. mesoamerica the heart of the maya civilization YUCATÁN PENINSULA Mérida Chichén Uxmal Itzá Mayapán Tulum NORTHERN LOWLANDS Teotihuacán Tenochtitlán Palenque BELIZE SOUTHERN CHIAPAS Tikal MEXICO HIGHLANDS Yaxchilán Tayasal SOUTHERN LOWLANDS GUATEMALA HONDURAS HIGHLANDS Copán GUATEMALA EL SALVADOR NICARAGUA InTRoDUCTIon H ave you ever thought about what life would be like if you had lived during the time of the ancient Maya, long before the fi rst European explorer set foot in the New World? The ancient Maya people were the most advanced civilization of their time: they were accomplished mathematicians, master builders, and they developed a complex written language. They also created some of the world’s most impressive art, in the form of jewelry, carvings, paintings, and ceramics. 1

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